José Bragança

José Bragança obtained a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Université Paris XI in France, and is currently holding an Associate Professor/Reader position at the University of Algarve (UAlg) in Portugal, in Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He is also the Principal Investigator directing the Stem Cells Biology Laboratory at the Algarve Biomedical Centre Research Institute (ABC-RI). Since 2020, he is a researcher of the Champalimaud Research Program, under the scope of the Algarve Biomedical Center partnership. He is also the director of Master in Biomedical Sciences of the UAlg and member of the directive board of the PhD program on Regenerative Medicine at the UAlg. Our group is interested in genes and regulatory pathways that control pluripotent stem cells (ESC – Embryonic Stem Cells, and iPSC – induced pluripotent cells) self-renewal and differentiation. We are also using ESC as a cellular tool to understand the early events of mammalian development, particularly cardiogenesis. The long-term aim of our work is to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in pluripotency and differentiation processes occurring in mouse and human cells in order to achieve cell-types specification in vitro for therapeutic purposes, and understand mechanisms of diseases.